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27/01/2011

[PS3] Assassins Creed: Brotherhood - Review

Made by
Francisco S.

Ezio returns to seek revenge in this action packed episode of Assassins Creed Brotherhood, but is it worth to sink our teeth and our money in this game?

Assassins Creed 2: Brotherhood, released on November 16, 2010 follows the story of Ezio, Italian master assassin who now seeks revenge after the actions done to his familly and his villa.
We find him now in Rome, who is ravaged by the vatican power that controls it, outnumbered and outmatched and without his technological superiority to face the Borgia, who laid waste to Monteriggioni made by the now head of the templars and the army of the Vatican Cesare Borgia, who only seeks to rule all of Italy and the only person who has the will and the wit to stop him is none other then Ezio. Sidelining the story, we also find Desmond, and the war against the Templar in the modern ages, and the development of Desmonds abilities and the search for the Apple.

Check for the complete information after the jump!

The Game

Followed by the critically acclaimed Assassins Creed 2, refreshes alot of the controls and graphics.

The controls are more responsive, everyone who got used to it on AC2 will find it even more responsive, actually its so more that it might become unsettling trying to run from A to B on, lets say some roofs with some chimney's and you get sometimes stuck on those chinmeys and trust me, it won't happen rarely.

The graphics have been updated, but you'll find alot of the older models of AC2 in there, of course there will be new buildings, mainly historically, that you will find yourself amused to do some amazing things and stunts, like maybe jumping from the top of the coliseum to the same graphically made stack of hay that seems to follow us everywhere there is a ledge with birds on it.

Now, they added the much needed horse ridding in cities that the game desperatly needed, you can now get from A to B faster, without resorting to roofs or other contraption, albeit it's still faster by roof and less glitchy.

The same system of viewing points is in the game, where Ezio needs to synchronize it so that we can get a better look at the map, of course now its not as easy as it was, most of the viewpoints are controlled by the borgia, so before you synchronize it, you might want to think and liberate the area of the borgia while you are there.

There is an economic system like its predecessor, the only difference is that you do not rebuild Monteriggioni but Rome itself, while you liberate the areas of the Borgia, you can bring the trading houses back to life, with some coins, the more buildings you bring back to active the more income you have, which will now have a destination so you don't just rack it up like in AC2.

Ezio will start the Order anew, featuring a new way to receive income and objects

Ezio will besides liberating Rome have the hard task of rebuilding its order, recruiting along people who are at risk of dying by the hands of the Borgia. The Order will grow according to the towers you "destroy" from the Templars, so the more you destroy the more you can recruit. The ranking system will guide your disciples from mere assassins with only a hidden blade to lethal ones who are armed with almost everything Ezio has. The disciples can be sent on missions through out Europe, and disrupt the moves of the Templars from all the 4 four corners of old Europe and if they are not doing any mission they can help you kill any guards that needs to be killed without you drawing attention or if you would like a shower of arrows that makes all the bad guys just fall out flat to the ground.

The feathers, the flags (they're back from AC1) and the treasures make a return and if you are a guy who wants to brag about 100% game completion you need to do, but in this game, you can buy the maps for them except the ones that are hidden in certain areas you might need to go through. Missions now also need a 100% sinchronization which makes you need to time a mission or kill someone in a certain way, depending on what you are doing and it's always good for the longevity of the game, you need to do them to release some of Ezio's repressed memories and you will find yourself in events that marked Ezio in the past. Last but not least is the shops missions, which require strange goods that will enhance your armour or weapons, these items will be hard to find and extremely painfull to get, since most of them drop chance.

The most notable change in the game was the soundtrack which is a bit lower quality then the previous one, you might find yourself in a high velocity chase with an unsettling music, and when running from the guards you do not get that feel from the music as it was in Assassin's Creed 2, so it was a bit hard to keep listening the music time by time and not getting it in the mood for the situation.

The Combat

The combat system has been revamped a little, now we have a little more ease picking up weapons from guards who died, and since Ezio knows more killings moves, you are bound to see the more brutal deaths some guards can have. There is also a new way of disposing of your enemies faster, its more of a kill streak that Ezio makes with extremely ease to dispose even the most heavily guards around, so fast you might question how you passed AC2 without it.

"It's extremely difficult to just run, lock your pretended target, and kill it without mowing a few innocent bystanders down"

Since you can now ride inside the city the battles also be fought by horse, its a little improvement from the previous games but you wont find it extremely necessary to do so, only for fun and games because you will have other toys you might get more out of it, like for example the crossbow, I mean i never had so much fun with a thing like that, they drop like flies and without raising the alarm if you use it properly.

Multiplayer Action.

AC:Brotherhood brought a new thing into the Assassins Creed Universe, which is Multiplayer. This for those nay-sayers who don't like multiplayer because its a step forward to neglecting single player might be an alarm, but don't worry, because the MP is part of the single player continuing story. The story is evident in both places, without giving into spoilers.

There are a number of games you consist but mainly its a contract kill type game, this meaning you are a character selected by in the menu, and you need to meld into the crowd, just like an assassin and kill your target before you are killed by the assassin who is after you, it will make you very paranoid and keep watching you back and front and even the roofs. If by accident your prey discovers you, you will have to take chase or you will lose your contract, the same if your the pray, you need to deploy whatever item you have to lose your opponent.

"Over 17 characters to play with and each character has 4 variations of itself"

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There is also a team assassination game mode which is unlocked after you gained a few levels, which follows the same has the wanted it was previously described, and with the new animus project patch 2.0 the treasure hunt game where you have a team of defenders of the treasure and a team who needs to get the treasure, each one can do whatever they can to get they're objectives done.

The game is set on various places, most of them from AC2, and there is a chain of levels you need to reach to unlock various stunts or objects, the more levels you have the more items you can use and with more variety, from a secret gun to a sprint boost to lose or get your targets faster.

There are over 17 characters to play with and each character has 4 variations of itself aswell as you can change the colour.

Although its a good concept of multiplayer, you might end up getting bored sometime later because of its ongoing rinse and repeat effect, making its longevity small and its community shrinking day by day.

The Bugs

Ubisoft tried to made an effort to clear the bugs of AC2 in AC:B, and they did it partially, but they also added new ones, for example in the horse ridding, sometimes I found myself jumping endlessly from horse to wall and back to horse and wall, sometimes I found myself stuck between the bloody horse and an alley without anything to climb, but the worse of it was the fighting in it, It's extremely difficult to just run, lock your pretended target, and kill it without mowing a few innocent bystanders down, and don't worry you will know what I'm talking about even if you finished the game without doing it.

Bugs and Glitches are often in Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

The also obvious bug is maybe the clipping sometimes happen without looking for it, sometimes you jump towards a place you get stuck in a wall and the next thing you do is finding yourself swimming below the city, its rare but extremely annoying since you need to go out of the single player and return back and do everything you want to do.

Other bugs are not so mind blowing horrible, and you can pass them easily without even noticing whats going on.

Conclusion

All in all, Ubisoft made a game that personaly it delivers, the graphics are up-par for the ammount of detail it brings, the controls are good and the multiplayer didn't destroy the single player like in many games we actually see out there.

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